Thing #5 Completed: Eat at Dragonfly Neo-V

I am noticing that it's been a full two months since my last post. Oops. And this particular Thing seems so simple too: eat at a restaurant. How hard is that? The trick is, this is a semi-fancy restaurant, requiring the whole dressing up bit, and the rationalization of spending extra $$ on dinner. Last night though, we finally had a legitimate reason to celebrate (moving!), so off to Dragonfly Neo-V we went.

Dragonfly has been celebrated by numerous local publications (and even some national ones) as one of the top restaurants for vegetarians to visit. Vegans and vegetarians alike will find plenty on the menu to tempt their curiosity. The chef also uses local and/or organic produce as much as possible, which means the menu changes by season and availability.

Since this was a celebration (more on that, anon), I started the meal off with a Lavender-infused Bombay Sapphire Gimlet (very smooth and subtle flavors). For a first course I ordered a Roasted Pumpkin Bisque topped with a Rum-Raisin Gelato (which complimented the bisque amazingly). Kurt ordered a Salad which included such exotic ingredients as Baby Turnips basking in Rose-infused Almond Milk. Intriguing, but I was glad I went with the bisque.

For the main course I ordered Grilled Tofu and Kurt ordered Butternut Squash Gnocchi (they were accompanied by more fancy ingredients and adjectives, but I didn't write them down). My dish featured a base of pumpkin surrounded by some sort of a white dough-like creation (I liked the pumpkin, but wasn't crazy about what surrounded it), topped with a slab of grilled tofu (very spicy and delicious), topped with some hearty cooked greens.

For dessert we ordered the Pumpkin-Chocolate Torte which was accompanied by a scoop of Coffee Gelato. The torte had three primarily layers: pumpkin, chocolate, and a cookie-style base. The flavors were good, and it wasn't too sweet, but the cookie layer seemed a bit dry to both of us.

One of the fun parts of eating at Dragonfly was the little mini-courses that also came with the meal. The chef sent out a little miniature appetizer at the beginning (a smoked mushroom artfully placed atop a small orzo salad), the bread served at the table was paired with a really wonderful pumpkin/squash spread, and after dessert we were served a miniature cup of spiced hot chocolate.

My overall review: 4 out of 5 stars. The food was good overall, and some of it was really top-notch, but for the price, there were a couple of small points (the dryness of one of the dessert layers, for example) where I expected slightly better.